Thursday, January 28, 2016

Emergency Department Visits Prior to Suicide and Homicide

Two statewide
surveillance systems were probabilistically linked to understand who utilizes EDs
and then dies violently within 6 weeks.

METHOD:

Each identified
case was matched with four randomly selected controls on sex, race, date of birth,
resident zip code, and date of ED visit vs. date of death. Matched-pair odds ratios
were estimated by conditional logistic regression to assess differences between
cases and controls on reported diagnoses and expected payment sources.

RESULTS:

Of 1,599 suicides
and 569 homicides in the 3-year study period, 10.7% of decedents who died by suicide
(x = 13.6 days) and 8.3% who died byhomicide(x
= 16.3 days) were seen in a state ED within 6 weeks prior to death. ED attendees
who died by suicide were more likely to have a diagnosis of injury/ poisoning diagnosis
or mental disorder and more likely to have Medicare. Those who died byhomicidewere more likely to have a diagnosis of injury/poisoning
and less likely to have commercial insurance.

CONCLUSION:

It
is essential for research to further explore risk factors for imminent suicide andhomicidein ED patients who present for psychiatric conditions
and general injuries.